The most powerful leaders inside Iran today arose from the ashes of the Iran-Iraq War, which locked in and solidified the Islamic Republic, whose leadership was built through war, security structures, and internal control. Right now, in the chaos, multiple centers of power are acting at once, and that is necessarily affecting negotiations. Those at the table do not fully control what they are allowed to negotiate, and positions are being set and reset in real time (much like they are in Washington).The key figures to watch: Mojtaba Khamenei, the…

Oil markets didn’t just rally this week; they repriced risk in a way that forced traders to adjust positioning quickly. What began as a recovery from prior weakness turned into a sharp geopolitical premium build, with supply disruption fears taking control of both WTI and Brent. By Thursday night, Weekly June WTI crude is trading $96.91, up $14.32 (+17.34%), a move that reflects more than momentum and signals a structural shift in how the market is pricing near-term supply risk. Geopolitical Premium Drives Breakout in WTI and Brent The early…

India's government has urged local refiners to increase production of liquefied petroleum gas—the country's main cooking fuel, amid the supply crunch resulting from the war in the Middle East. Bloomberg reported today that India's production of LPG since February 28th had gone up by 25% to 46,000 tons per day. Local output is on course to rise further to 50,000 tons daily after Nayara Energy's refinery restarts after seasonal maintenance next month. A separate report, meanwhile, suggested refiners will be losing money on the crank-up of LPG…

India's government has urged local refiners to increase production of liquefied petroleum gas—the country's main cooking fuel, amid the supply crunch resulting from the war in the Middle East. Bloomberg reported today that India's production of LPG since February 28th had gone up by 25% to 46,000 tons per day. Local output is on course to rise further to 50,000 tons daily after Nayara Energy's refinery restarts after seasonal maintenance next month. A separate report, meanwhile, suggested refiners will be losing money on the crank-up of LPG…

Pakistan’s government is looking to buy crude oil from Russia, Venezuela, and Nigeria to replace lost supply from the Middle East, Pakistan Today reports, adding that the government is also seeking LNG cargoes. Pakistan has suffered a substantial hit from the energy price surge following the start of the war between the United States and Israel, and Iran, seeing record-high fuel import price premiums and a gas crunch that has led to blackouts. To address the problem, the government in Islamabad is turning to alternative suppliers of both…

Crude oil prices extended their gaining streak to five days today, with Brent crude trading at $106.30 per barrel at the time of writing and West Texas Intermediate at $96.68 per barrel. Bloomberg attributed the continued price rise to President Trump’s latest social media posts, which suggest the prospect of peace with Iran remains distant. The publication cited two unnamed U.S. government officials as saying that the U.S. president’s recent social media activity and the continuing blockade of Iranian ports have not been conducive…

Investment in new lithium supply is threatening to tip the global market for the battery metal into a deficit, beginning as early as this year. The warning comes from Canaccord, which noted that the supply of lithium has tightened considerably, even as demand for electric vehicles has weakened. What’s more, the deficit may last for quite a while, until 2035. Lithium is a rather abundant element, but deposits are concentrated in a handful of locations, commonly referred to as the Lithium Triangle locked between Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile.…

Last year, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) approved its 2023 Net-Zero Framework that set a target to eliminate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the global shipping industry by 2050. The framework consists of a Global Fuel Standard that requires ships to gradually reduce the GHG Fuel Intensity (GFI) of the energy they use as well as a Pricing Mechanism whereby ships exceeding GFI thresholds are required to pay for remedial units while ships that use zero or near-zero (ZNZ) fuels can earn surplus units to trade or bank in the future.…

Faced with the second energy crisis this decade, the European Union aims to reduce dependence on natural gas, coordinate gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel supplies, and accelerate renewable energy capacity installations. The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled proposals aimed at protecting Europeans from the fossil energy crisis and accelerating the shift to clean, homegrown energy. “For the second time in less than five years, Europeans are paying the price of Europe's dependency on imported fossil fuels,” the Commission says. The…